steal my thunder ✷ owens

𐚁 𝟎𝟑. 𝐚𝐥𝐰𝐚𝐲𝐬 𝐥𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐬 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐭𝐨 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐫𝐨𝐨𝐭𝐬

.°˖⋆ ℧ 𓃗 .°˖⋆

IT'S BEEN FIVE years since Arizona last saw Kate. She missed her friend badly, but understood that she wanted out.

Arizona wished that she could have brought herself to leave Oklahoma, but she couldn't. She already ran away once...she couldn't do it again.

Instead, Arizona swore off of tornado chasing. She focused her studies on something in biology. Ecosystems or whatever.

But she couldn't find it in her heart to care enough. Her eyes would always linger on the clouds and she always knew whenever a storm was brewing.

Her heart would pound, her hands would shake. Arizona would get flashes of memories, all of them bad.

So when she saw two of her oldest friends walking into her office, Arizona couldn't stop the smile appearing on her face.

"Javi! Kate!" Arizona laughed breathlessly, wrapping an arm around both of their shoulders and pulling them close. "What the hell are you guys doing here?"

"Good to see you, Ari," Javi smiled, looking around the girl's office. The first thing he recognized was a teddy bear sitting on a shelf and a Stetson hat she used to wear all the damn time hanging on the edge of said shelf. "See you still got your hat."

Arizona followed his gaze, but her eyes landed on the dirty teddy bear with one eye. "Yeah, well, we all got our roots."

And it was true. While Kate and Javi wore their professional clothes—blouses and business pants—Arizona wore her bell bottom jeans and a plain white t-shirt tucked in. Her brown leather boots were hidden under jeans, and her belt was bigger and shinier than anything they'd seen before, but that's what she got working with ecosystems. Lots of money.

"So," Arizona said, bringing the attention back to the main conversation. "What are you guys doing here?"

Kate looked to Javi, as if waiting for him to explain. She had already listened to it once and still didn't know if she was making the right decision. A weight rested on her shoulders, like the world was counting on her.

"We need your help. Your smarts, really," Javi began saying. He then went on a really long explanation and borrowed small items in Arizona's office to recreate a 3-D model of a new way to graph data about a tornado. He said that this could be a way for them to learn more about tornadoes than has ever been explored. They could save millions of more people.

Arizona was leaning towards saying yes. She really wanted to help people in her city and all over the world. But the tone in Javi's voice made it seem like he needed more than just her brain.

"There's more," she said, noticing the small furrow of his brows. The hesitation in the words he wanted to say, but didn't.

Javi glanced to Kate, who stared at the fake model on the desk. She was already planning in her head...or maybe she was thinking of a way to get out of it.

Javi sighed. "We need you out there with us."

Arizona immediately started shaking her head. There was no way she was going to chase a tornado again. Not when her friends got killed the last time they did it. And for what? Data that didn't mean anything?

"I'm not doing it," Arizona persisted, taking a step back and listening to the sound of her boots clacking against the wood floors. "Javi, you know what happened last time...I can't do it."

"Ari, we need you. Kate already agreed and she went through the same thing as you—"

"Did she?" Arizona's eyes narrowed on the boy. "Does she carry the guilt of knowing she was the reason her mother died from a tornado? That she wasn't enough to keep her mother from wanting to go out and chase the one thing that destroyed her entire life?"

Javi gulped, looking down at the table. What Arizona was saying was true. And the way her voice cracked as the words tumbled out of her mouth just made his heart break.

"Ari, I'm—"

"I can't do it. Not after knowing that the last time we tried—" She cut herself off, her words getting caught in her throat.

Instead, a soft sob echoed in the room, and Kate was quick to her feet, wrapping her arms around Arizona's neck and rubbing her back soothingly.

Arizona blinked, not wanting to ruin her makeup over a bad memory. She held onto Kate, knowing that she was the only other person who could understand what she was going through.

"If you can't do it for yourself," Kate whispered into Arizona's ear. "Do it for them."